Top down delete or unsynchronization on delete of and depiction of item synchronization with a synchronization client to a cloud-based platform

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present disclosure include systems and methods to facilitate top down delete or un-synchronization on delete of a synchronization client to a cloud-based platform. The disclosed technology innovates the mechanism the synchronization client processes local deletes so that instead of synchronizing the delete of each individual item across to the cloud-based platform, it can accumulate the individual item deletes into a top-level folder delete and that top-level folder delete can be what is communicated across to the cloud-based platform. Embodiments of the present disclosure also include systems and methods for depicting item synchronization between a local and cloud based platform/service (e.g. the Box service). In some embodiments the system can identify items that cannot be synchronized between the local and cloud based platform/service (e.g., cloud based collaboration or storage platform/service). The system can further indicate reasons for the inability to synchronize and can offer corrective action.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority to and benefit from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Nos. 61/822,191 titled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DEPICTING ITEM SYNCHRONIZATION WITH A CLOUD-BASED PLATFORM BY A SYNCHRONIZATION CLIENT”, filed on May 10, 2013, and 61/831,739 titled “TOP DOWN DELETE OR UNSYNCHRONIZATION ON DELETE OF A SYNCHRONIZATION CLIENT TO A CLOUD-BASED PLATFORM”, filed on Jun. 6, 2013. The contents of the two provisional applications are incorporated by reference herein.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. The following notice applies to the software and data as described below and in the drawings that form a part of this document: Copyright 2013, Box, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example environment in which users communicate with a cloud-based concurrent-access collaboration platform.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the collaboration platform deployed in an enterprise or other organizational setting for organizing workspaces and work items.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating example components of a synchronization client.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process performed by a server unsynchronization module.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process performed by a synchronization depiction module.

FIG. 6 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the example form of a computer system within which a set of instructions, for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, may be executed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description and drawings are illustrative and are not to be construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosure. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order to avoid obscuring the description. References to one or an embodiment in the present disclosure can be, but not necessarily are, references to the same embodiment; and, such references mean at least one of the embodiments.

Reference in this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features are described which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others. Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirements for some embodiments but not other embodiments.

The terms used in this specification generally have their ordinary meanings in the art, within the context of the disclosure, and in the specific context where each term is used. Certain terms that are used to describe the disclosure are discussed below, or elsewhere in the specification, to provide additional guidance to the practitioner regarding the description of the disclosure. For convenience, certain terms may be highlighted, for example using italics and/or quotation marks. The use of highlighting has no influence on the scope and meaning of a term; the scope and meaning of a term is the same, in the same context, whether or not it is highlighted. It will be appreciated that same thing can be said in more than one way.

Consequently, alternative language and synonyms may be used for any one or more of the terms discussed herein, nor is any special significance to be placed upon whether or not a term is elaborated or discussed herein. Synonyms for certain terms are provided. A recital of one or more synonyms does not exclude the use of other synonyms. The use of examples anywhere in this specification including examples of any terms discussed herein is illustrative only, and is not intended to further limit the scope and meaning of the disclosure or of any exemplified term. Likewise, the disclosure is not limited to various embodiments given in this specification.

Without intent to limit the scope of the disclosure, examples of instruments, apparatus, methods and their related results according to the embodiments of the present disclosure are given below. Note that titles or subtitles may be used in the examples for convenience of a reader, which in no way should limit the scope of the disclosure. Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains. In the case of conflict, the present document, including definitions will control.

Embodiments of the present disclosure include systems and methods to facilitate top down delete or un-synchronization on delete of a synchronization client to a cloud-based platform.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example environment 100 in which users or collaborators communicate with a cloud-based concurrent-access collaboration platform (cloud-based service/platform, collaboration workspace and/or cloud storage service). A host system 110 hosts the collaboration platform which enables users to simultaneously create, view, edit, annotate, store, share and otherwise manage content in real time or near real time. The host system 110 has a high-availability architecture suited for handling the large volume of user requests.

The client devices 102 can be any system and/or device, and/or any combination of devices/systems that is able to establish a communication or a connection, including wired, wireless, cellular connections with another device, a server and/or other systems such as the host server 110. The client devices 102 typically include a display and/or other output functionalities to present information and data exchanged between among the client devices 102 and/or the host server 110.

For example, the client devices 102 can include mobile, handheld or portable devices or non-portable devices and can be any of, but not limited to, a server desktop, a desktop computer, a computer cluster, or portable devices including, a notebook, a laptop computer, a handheld computer, a palmtop computer, a mobile phone, a cell phone, a PDA, a smart phone (e.g., a BlackBerry device such as BlackBerry Z10/Q10, an iPhone, Nexus 4, etc.), a Treo, a handheld tablet (e.g. an iPad, iPad Mini, a Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note II, Xoom Tablet, Microsoft Surface, Blackberry PlayBook, Nexus 7, 10 etc.), a phablet (e.g., HTC Droid DNS, etc.), a tablet PC, a thin-client, a hand held console, a hand held gaming device or console (e.g., XBOX live, Nintendo DS, Sony PlayStation Portable, etc.), mobile-enabled powered watch (e.g., iOS, Android or other platform based), Google Glass, a Chromebook and/or any other portable, mobile, hand held devices, etc. running on any platform or any operating system (e.g., Mac-based OS (OS X, iOS, etc.), Windows-based OS (Windows Mobile, Windows 7, Windows 8, etc.), Android, Blackberry OS, Embedded Linux platforms, Palm OS, Symbian platform, Google Chrome OS, and the like. In one embodiment, the client devices 102 and host server 110 are coupled via a network 106. In some embodiments and the client devices 102 and host server 100 may be directly connected to one another.

The input mechanism on client devices 102 can include touch screen keypad (including single touch, multi-touch, gesture sensing in 2D or 3D, etc.), a physical keypad, a mouse, a pointer, a track pad, motion detector (e.g., including 1-axis, 2-axis, 3-axis accelerometer, etc.), a light sensor, capacitance sensor, resistance sensor, temperature sensor, proximity sensor, a piezoelectric device, device orientation detector (e.g., electronic compass, tilt sensor, rotation sensor, gyroscope, accelerometer), or a combination of the above.

Signals received or detected indicating user activity at client devices 102 through one or more of the above input mechanism, or others, can be used by various users or collaborators (e.g., collaborators 108) for accessing, through the network 106, a web-based collaboration environment or online collaboration platform (e.g., hosted by the host server 110). The collaboration environment or platform can have one or more collective settings 105 for an enterprise or an organization where the users belong, and can provide a user interface 104 for the users to access such platform under the settings 105.

In general, the network 106, over which the client devices 102 and the host server 110 communicate may be a cellular network, a telephonic network, an open network, such as the Internet, or a private network, such as an intranet and/or the extranet, or any combination or variation thereof. For example, the Internet can provide file transfer, remote log in, email, news, RSS, cloud-based services, instant messaging, visual voicemail, push mail, VoIP, and other services through any known or convenient protocol, such as, but is not limited to the TCP/IP protocol, Open System Interconnections (OSI), FTP, UPnP, iSCSI, NSF, ISDN, PDH, RS-232, SDH, SONET, etc.

The network 106 can be any collection of distinct networks operating wholly or partially in conjunction to provide connectivity to the client devices 102 and the host server 110 and may appear as one or more networks to the serviced systems and devices. In one embodiment, communications to and from the client devices 102 can be achieved by, an open network, such as the Internet, or a private network, such as an intranet and/or the extranet. In one embodiment, communications can be achieved by a secure communications protocol, such as secure sockets layer (SSL), or transport layer security (TLS).

In addition, communications can be achieved via one or more networks, such as, but are not limited to, one or more of WiMax, a Local Area Network (LAN), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), a Personal area network (PAN), a Campus area network (CAN), a Metropolitan area network (MAN), a Wide area network (WAN), a Wireless wide area network (WWAN), or any broadband network, and further enabled with technologies such as, by way of example, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Personal Communications Service (PCS), Bluetooth, WiFi, Fixed Wireless Data, 2G, 2.5G, 3G (e.g., WCDMA/UMTS based 3G networks), 4G, IMT-Advanced, pre-4G, LTE Advanced, mobile WiMax, WiMax 2, WirelessMAN-Advanced networks, enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), General packet radio service (GPRS), enhanced GPRS, iBurst, UMTS, HSPDA, HSUPA, HSPA, HSPA+, UMTS-TDD, 1×RTT, EV-DO, messaging protocols such as, TCP/IP, SMS, MMS, extensible messaging and presence protocol (XMPP), real time messaging protocol (RTMP), instant messaging and presence protocol (IMPP), instant messaging, USSD, IRC, or any other wireless data networks, broadband networks, or messaging protocols.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the collaboration platform deployed in an enterprise or other organizational setting 250 for organizing workspaces 205, 225 and 245 and work items 215, 235 and 255. The collaboration platform or environment hosts workspaces with work items that one or more users can access (e.g., view, edit, update, revise, comment, download, preview, tag, or otherwise manipulate, etc.). A work item can generally include any type of digital or electronic content that can be viewed or accessed via an electronic device (e.g., client devices 202). For example, the work items 215 and 235 include general digital content, such as .pdf files, .doc, slides (e.g., Powerpoint slides), images, audio files, multimedia content, web pages, blogs, etc. On the other hand, the work items 255 comprise “notes” or documents of a proprietary format, which support advanced and unique capabilities of data management and promote collaboration. A workspace can generally refer to any grouping of a set of digital content managed by the collaboration platform. For example, the workspaces A 205 and B 225 include general digital content while the workspace 245, referred to as a “notebook”, includes notes only. The grouping can be created, identified, or specified by a user or through other means. This user may be a creator user or administrative user, for example.

In general, a workspace can be associated with a set of users or collaborators (e.g., collaborators 108) who have access to the content included therein. The levels of access (e.g., based on permissions or rules) of each user or collaborator to access the content in a given workspace may be the same or may vary among the users. Each user may have their own set of access rights to every piece of content in the workspace, or each user may have different access rights to different pieces of content. Access rights may be specified by a user associated with a workspace and/or a user who created/uploaded a particular piece of content to the workspace, or any other designated user or collaborator.

In general, the collaboration platform allows multiple users or collaborators to access or collaborate on work items such that each user can remotely see edits, revisions, comments, or annotations being made to specific work items through their own user devices. For example, a user can upload a document to a workspace for other users to access (e.g., for viewing, editing, commenting, signing-off or otherwise manipulating). The user can login to the online platform and upload the document (or any other type of work item) to an existing workspace or to a new workspace. The document can be shared with existing users or collaborators in a workspace.

The web-based platform for collaborating on projects or jointly working on documents can be used by individual users and shared among collaborators. In addition, the collaboration platform can be deployed in an organized setting including but not limited to, a company (e.g., an enterprise setting), a department in a company, an academic institution, a department in an academic institution, a class or course setting, or any other types of organizations or organized setting.

When deployed in an organizational setting, multiple workspaces (e.g., workspace A, B C) can be created to support different projects or a variety of work flows. Each workspace can have its own associate work items. For example, workspace A 205 can be associated with work items 215, workspace B 225 can be associated with work items 235, and workspace 245 can be associated with work items 255. The work items 215, 235, and 255 can be unique to each workspace but need not be. For example, a particular work item or a note can be associated with only one workspace or it can be associated with multiple workspaces.

In general, each workspace has a set of users or collaborators associated with it. For example, workspace A 205 is associated with multiple users or collaborators 206. In some instances, workspaces deployed in an enterprise can be department specific. For example, workspace B can be associated with department 210 and some users shown as example user A 208, and workspace N 245 can be associated with departments 212 and 216 and users shown as example user B 214.

In the case of a notebook, collaborators of the notebook can have simultaneous read/write access to a note in the notebook. Specifically, in a concurrent fashion, each of the collaborators is able to make changes to the note or even edit the changes made by other collaborators. In addition, a separate list of collaborators can be specified at the note level to override the list of collaborators at the notebook level, so that different notes within the same notebook can be associated with different sets of collaborators.

In each workspace A, B . . . N, when an action is performed on a work item by a given user or any other activity is detected in the workspace, other users in the same workspace can be notified (e.g., in real time or in near real time, or not in real time). Activities which trigger real time notifications can include, by way of example but not limitation, adding, deleting, or modifying collaborators in the workspace, uploading, downloading, adding, deleting a work item in the workspace, creating a discussion topic in the workspace.

In some embodiments, items or content downloaded or edited can cause notifications to be generated. Such notifications can be sent to relevant users to notify them of actions surrounding a download, an edit, a change, a modification, a new file, a conflicting version, an upload of an edited or modified file.

In one embodiment, in a user interface to the web-based collaboration platform where notifications are presented, users can, via the same interface, create action items (e.g., tasks) and delegate the action items to other users including collaborators pertaining to a work item 215, for example. The collaborators 206 can be in the same workspace A 205 and can invite a new collaborator to join the workspace, for example. Similarly, in the same user interface where discussion topics can be created in a workspace (e.g., workspace A, B or N, etc.), actionable events on work items can be created and/or delegated/assigned to other users such as collaborators of a given workspace 206 or other users. Through the same user interface, task status and updates from multiple users or collaborators can be indicated and reflected. In some instances, the users can perform the tasks (e.g., review or approve or reject, etc.) via the same user interface.

Synchronization Client

The collaboration platform offers a synchronization client that runs on a client device to perform synchronization of folders and files between a location on the collaboration platform and a location on the client device. The synchronization client offers user interfaces that may be accessed directly from the client device or through the web. It informs a user of the status of synchronization processes and allows a user to choose various options depending on the informed status, thus making the synchronization process efficient and user-friendly.

Currently, when a user deletes a folder either on the cloud-based platform server or on the locally synchronized device, the synchronization client views the resulting change in the file system as a series of delete events for each of the individual items inside the folder and applies this set of deletes in a bottom-up manner on the opposite file system. This has drawbacks for deletes performed by the user on the local file system and then executed by the synchronization client on the cloud-based platform server.

First, it puts the deleted folder into the cloud-based platform server trash in an unrestorable state. The cloud-based platform server trash is a flat list of all of a user's explicitly deleted items. When each item in a folder is individually deleted, each item ends up as a separate entry in the cloud-based platform server trash. This means that in order to restore the deleted folder a user must individually restore the deleted folder, then all of its children, then all of their children, etc. This quickly becomes untenable at only a handful of items and layers to the folder tree.

Second, it prevents the system from performing an unsynchronization on delete. A common issue is that it's not intuitive to users that when users delete a folder locally, they're implicitly deleting it on the cloud-based platform server as well. Often, users think that they are just deleting the content off their local machine. To counter-balance this tendency, the disclosed technology now enables the default behavior of synchronization on encountering a local folder deletion to be unsynchronizing that folder rather than deleting it. To do this effectively, the system needs to identify the top-level folder deleted to prevent deletes on files inside that folder from happening and just perform the top-level unsync. Otherwise, the system successfully unsynchronizes all the folders in a deleted folder tree but ends up moving all the files that used to exist inside that tree into the trash.

The disclosed technology changes the way the synchronization client synchronization processes local deletes so that instead of syncing the delete of each individual item across to cloud-based platform server, it will be accumulating the individual item deletes into a top-level folder delete and that top-level folder delete will be what is unsynced across to the cloud-based platform server.

Specifically, first, the synchronization client detects when a set of individual item deletes can be represented by a single top-level folder delete and execute only that top-level delete.

Second, the synchronization client handles the ambiguity inherent in executing a top-level delete in that the set of items actually unsynchronized depends on the tree structure of the destination file system at the time of execution and therefore may not match up exactly with the set of items originally deleted on the source file system. The synchronization client synchronization makes sure that the same items end up as either deleted/unsynchronized or not on each file system and that this set of items matches as closely as possible to the user's intent in deleting the top-level folder.

As a result, when a user deletes a folder locally, the cloud-based platform does not pollute their trash with all the descendant items deleted. As the top-level deletes is generally not special-case, they should generally interact with existing abstractions (the reorderer, the last synchronization item store, the file system API's, etc.) in a manner consistent with other events. In addition, deletes from the cloud-based platform server to the local device will continue to be handled in the current bottom-up manner. There isn't currently a business need to do deletes from the cloud-based platform server top-down, since the cloud-based platform server deletes translate to permanent local deletes and thus both methods end up producing the same end state.

Furthermore, the synchronization shows the synchronization states of various items with respect to the local file system and the cloud-based platform through various user interfaces. Specifically, it indicates whether versions of each item may be synchronized, reasons for failure of synchronization, and so on.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating example components of the synchronization client. In some embodiments, the synchronization client 300 includes a network module 306, a server unsynchronization module 302, and a synchronization depiction module 304.

As used herein, a “module” or the like includes a general purpose, dedicated or shared processor and, typically, firmware or software modules that are executed by the processor. Depending upon implementation-specific or other considerations, the module can be centralized or its functionality distributed. The module or the like can include general or special purpose hardware, firmware, or software embodied in a computer-readable (storage) medium for execution by the processor.

As used herein, a computer-readable medium or computer-readable storage medium is intended to include all mediums that are statutory (e.g., in the United States, under 35 U.S.C. 101), and to specifically exclude all mediums that are non-statutory in nature to the extent that the exclusion is necessary for a claim that includes the computer-readable (storage) medium to be valid. Known statutory computer-readable mediums include hardware (e.g., registers, random access memory (RAM), non-volatile (NV) storage, to name a few), but may or may not be limited to hardware.

The network module 306 can be a networking module that enables the host server to mediate data in a network with an entity that is external to the host server, through any known and/or convenient communications protocol supported by the host server and the external entity. The network module 306 can communicate with one or more of a network adaptor card, a wireless network interface card (e.g., SMS interface, Wi-Fi interface, interfaces for various generations of mobile communication standards including but not limited to 1G, 2G, 3G, 3.5G, 4G, LTE, etc.), Bluetooth, a router, an access point, a wireless router, a switch, a multilayer switch, a protocol converter, a gateway, a bridge, a bridge router, a hub, a digital media receiver, and/or a

The server unsynchronization module 302 is explained below.

Detecting Top-Level Deletes

The disclosed technology performs top-level delete detection in the local scanner. This is the only place where there is a full picture of the set of items about to be deleted, so it is the only place where the disclosed technology has the appropriate context to determine which deletes are top-level and which aren't. The basic algorithm used is to have the scanner, after determining the set of items to delete, walk this set of items and check for each item whether its parent is also being deleted. If so, then the deletion is not a top-level deletion and shouldn't be executed on the opposite file system; otherwise, it is and should lead to an unsynchronization on the cloud-based platform when the top-level deletion is performed on the local file system.

This technique is accurate so long as the scanner had a chance to see the most recent parent for each deleted item. If the scanner did not see the most recent parent, then it may either incorrectly generate a top-level delete for an item that recently moved into a deleted folder tree, or it may mistakenly not generate a top-level delete for an item that recently moved out of a deleted folder tree and was independently deleted. This can be a general problem with the scanners in that intermediate file system states that the scanners don't see are invisible to the synchronization client, and the system can't really hope to do better except by improving the responsiveness of the scanners so that they can capture more intermediate states of the file system.

Ordering Top-Level Delete Execution

Since the actual items deleted by a top-level delete depend on the specific tree structure at the time the delete is executed, it's essential that top-level deletes are only executed after any events that modify the structure of the tree being deleted have been executed, specifically after any moves of items in to or out of the deleted tree. To enforce this ordering, the technique leverages the synchronization client's existing ordering mechanisms, i.e. the reorderer in the filter pipeline for establishing a valid execution order and the synchronization event dependency graph for limiting the extent to which the executors can deviate from that ordering. These two mechanisms already provide the ordering guarantees needed, so long as the top-level deletes continue to be represented as a set of individual delete events for each of the items in the deleted folder tree.

When the top-level delete is represented in this way, the reorderer is able to perform a check that each individual folder delete is not executed until the folder is empty, meaning that either every item inside that folder has had its recursive delete processed by the reorderer or that, for those items inside the folder that were not deleted on the local filesystem, the move event that removed the item from the deleted folder has been processed. Similarly, in the synchronization event dependency graph, every recursive delete event will have dependencies placed on it with any pending events on the item (including any moves of the item into the deleted tree) as well as any pending events that delete or move its children (including any moves of its children out of the deleted tree). Thus, the top-level delete itself can establish dependencies for deletes at each level of the deleted tree such that every recursive delete event is not marked as processed until any moves into the deleted tree for that item have been executed and any moves of its direct children out of the deleted tree have also been processed.

In order to represent a top-level delete as a set of individual delete events on each deleted item, the local scanner, after identifying which deletes are top-level and which are recursive, can continue to emit all the delete events into the filter pipeline but will tag the recursive deletes as such. This information will pass through the filter pipeline to the synchronization event ultimately generated and can be used to turn the delete into a no-op when the synchronization event is executed.

Recovering From Deletion Discrepancies

Although the synchronization client can ensure that all of its local modifications to the deleted tree are applied before the top-level delete is executed, it can't guarantee that there weren't modifications made to the tree on the cloud-based platform that weren't reflected in the tree deleted by the user locally. When the top-level delete is applied, this can result in either additional items being deleted on the server that weren't deleted locally or items that were deleted locally not ending up deleted on the cloud-based platform. In keeping with our general philosophy of “server wins,” the desired end behavior is to delete locally all items that ended up deleted on the cloud-based platform and restore locally any that weren't.

The key to allowing for this recovery is to maintain the synchronization client's existing contract that the last synchronization item store and the opposite file system's monitor are updated with the expected new state of the file system immediately after the synchronization event that brought about that new state is completed. Then, if the synchronization client is immediately re-started following the execution of the top-level delete, on the subsequent scan of the cloud-based platform file system, the synchronization client will detect any additional deleted items as new delete events to be executed locally and any items that failed to be deleted by the top-level delete as new items that need to be created locally.

Similarly, if the synchronization client is not re-started following the execution of the top-level delete, the echoback delete events for the individual items deleted on the cloud-based platform will make it through the cloud-based platform monitor as delete events for any items not deleted locally, since unlike the items deleted locally they'll still be present in the cloud-based platform monitor to be deleted. For items that were not deleted by the top-level delete, there must be a pending move event for the item, which the cloud-based platform monitor will turn into a create event to be executed locally when it diffs against the item's current deleted state.

For top-level deletes, in order to ensure that the last synchronization item store and the opposite file system's monitor are not updated until the change has actually been effected on the opposite file system, the top-level delete event must take care of performing the necessary updates for all of its associated recursively deleted items. This requires that the top-level delete event be enhanced with the IDs of all the descendant items that the top-level delete is expected to remove. The scanner, when determining top-level and recursive deletes, will therefore need to identify for each recursive delete its associated top-level delete, so that that information can be included in the top-level delete event that is propagated through the filter pipeline.

One additional wrinkle that complicates the recovery process for items not deleted on the cloud-based platform by the top-level delete is that the system may have already received the move event that accounts for the item not being deleted before the unsynchronization on the cloud-based platform is executed. The cloud-based platform's monitor will then never get a move event which it can turn into the create events necessary to restore the non-deleted items. This scenario is handled at the conflict recovery level, where the move event will eventually arrive as a result of the moved item being deleted on the local file system.

Previously, there was generally certainty that if an item had been deleted locally it would eventually be deleted on cloud-based platform, and so conflict recovery could safely ignore the move event. Now, there is not that assurance and thus need to re-scan the item on cloud-based platform to verify whether it's deleted or not. But to the system needs to make sure that this re-scan is not triggered until the top-level delete has actually had a chance to execute, otherwise the system may detect the item as still existing even though the top-level delete will eventually delete it and also would not end up generating the proper create event for the item were the scan performed, as the cloud-based platform monitor would not have been updated yet to indicate the item was deleted.

To ensure that the scan is delayed for the move until the appropriate point, conflict recovery will continue to retry the move until it detects that the item has been both deleted locally and has been marked deleted in the last synchronization item store. Since the last synchronization item store isn't updated until after the top-level delete is executed and the opposite monitor updated, once it is updated to reflect the delete, it is safe to do the re-scan of the moved item. This re-scan will then generate the appropriate creates and bring the two file systems back in sync.

Rationale/Alternative Embodiments

One additional embodiment is to represent top-level deletes as a single delete event that contained the complete information about all the descendant deletes contained in the top-level deletes. This had the potential advantage of providing a more direct way of delaying the updating of the last synchronization item store and the opposite file system's monitor until the top-level delete was executed since there would now no longer be any synchronization events for the recursively deleted items. One other variation is to vary the constraints on having the last synchronization item store and opposite monitor updated only after the system had changed the opposite file system.

Another embodiment allows the recursive deletes to do a one-way update of the last synchronization item store and relies on the echoback to clean up the cloud-based platform monitor, allowing them to skip the update entirely and again relying on the echoback to clean up both the cloud-based platform monitor and the last synchronization item store, and allowing them to go ahead and update both sides of the last synchronization item store as well as the cloud-based platform monitor.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process performed by the server unsynchronization module 302. In step 402, the server unsynchronization module 302 receives a request from a user to delete a first item on a client device. In step 404, it detects a top-level item for the first item. As the items are normally arranged in a tree structure, such as in a file system, detecting the top-level item may require tracing the parent relationships from the first item and identifying the item without a parent as the top-level item. In step 406, the server unsynchronization module 302 deletes the top-level item from the client device. The deletion may be implemented as moving the item into a trash area on the client device to be permanently deleted later. In step 408, the server unsynchronization module 302 identifies a second item on the cloud-based computing system that corresponds to the top-level item. The second item and the top-level item are generally versions of the same object and may or may not be identical depending on the synchronization state. In step 410, finally, the server unsynchronization module 302 breaks the synchronization relationship between the second item and the top-level item, so that the second item no longer corresponds to the top-level item.

The synchronization depiction module 304 is explained below.

Item Synchronization

Some embodiments provide an interface depicting problem items associated with a synchronization between a local synchronization client and a cloud based platform/service. Some embodiments can gather and maintain the information associated with the local Problem & Ignorable items and the cloud based platform/service items.

In some embodiments, the cloud based platform/service (e.g., cloud based collaboration or storage platform/service, personal or enterprise) ignorables are not included because these items do not appear in the Problem User interface. Some embodiments provide an API to access this data. Some embodiments can enable real time notifications (e.g., growl on Mac). Some embodiments can create the editorial data associated with this feature (e.g. text description of error reasons, etc).

Item Status Reason

A new enumeration, ItemStatusReason, can list the various reasons that an item can have a given syncability. This list can change over time and can include:

Syncable Items: Syncable.

Problem Items: Unsupported File Type, Unsupport Item Name, Web Only Document, Item Too Large, Quota Exceeded, Permission Error, Network Error, Authentication Error.

Ignorable Items: Temporary Item, Hidden Item, System Item, Link Or Alias Item.

Identifying Unsyncable Items

Some embodiments have components identifying/creating Unsyncable items:

1) The Monitor—identifies items known to be Unsyncable prior to executing on the opposite file system (e.g. purely based on name, attributes); and

2) SE executors—marks an item that fails during execution on the opposite file system (e.g. item is too large, network goes down, etc.) as a Problem Item.

In some embodiments, these components can identify the reason an item is Unsyncable. In the Monitor this reason can be included in the ITEM_CHANGED_UNSYNCABLE_STATE notification sent to the IconManager. This can be accomplished by editing an existing system using the code indicated below in bold/red.

 # An Unsyncable file has changed state, either coming into existence    or disappeared.  # The callback should have the signature -  #  callback(unsyncable_transition, item_syncability, syncability_reason,    item_path)  #   :param unsyncable_transition:  #    The unsyncable underwent this transition (created or deleted)  #   :type unsyncable_transition:  #    :class:‘UnsyncableTransitions‘  #   :param item_syncability:  #    which variety of unscynable is this item (IGNORABLE or      UNSUPPORTED)  #   :type item_syncability:  #    :class:‘ItemSyncabilty‘  #   :param syncability_reason:  #    a reason behind the stated syncability of this item  #   :type syncability_reason:  #    :class:‘ItemStatusReason‘  #   :param item_path:  #    The path of the item.  #   :type item_path:  #    ‘unicode‘  ITEM_CHANGED_UNSYNCABLE_STATE =  ‘ITEM_CHANGED_UNSYNCABLE_STATE’ In some embodiments, a Sync Event Queue can maintain the state of an event via calls to this internal API: def_update_sync_event_state(self, sync_event, event_state): which can in turn become a notification. This notification can be enhanced to include the SyncFailureReason, an existing code established when the execution of a SE fails.

 # A :class:‘SyncEvent‘ changed state in the :class:‘SyncEventQueue‘. The callback should have the signature -  #  callback(sync_event, new_event_state, old_event_state)  #   :param sync_event:  #    The sync event that was changed. sync_event.       event_state contains  #   the new event_state  #   :type sync_event:  #    :class:‘SyncEvent‘  #   :param new_event_state:  #    The new state of the event.  #   :type new_event_state:  #    :class:‘SyncEventState‘  #   :param old_event_state:  #    The old state of the event.  #   :type old_event_state:  #    :class:‘SyncEventState‘  #   :param failure_reason:  #    The failure reason (SyncFailureReason.None for no failure).  #   :type failure_reason:  #    :class:‘SyncFailureReason‘  SYNC_EVENT_CHANGED_STATE =  ‘SYNC_EVENT_CHANGED_STATE’ IconManager

The IconManager can receive these notifications and can map SyncFailureReason to ItemStatusReason. In some embodiments, the IconManager can:

1) Send an ‘ITEM_SYNC_STATUS_CHANGED’ notification which can include the ItemStatusReason.

 # Notification sent when the sync status of an item is changed. The callback should have the signature -  #  callback(item_path, item_sync_status, syncability_reason)  #   :param item_path:  #    The path whose sync status changed.  #   :type item_path:  #    ‘unicode‘  #   :param item_sync_status:  #    The new sync status of the item at path.  #   :type item_sync_status:  #    :attr:‘ItemSyncStatus‘  #   :param syncability_reason:  #    a reason behind the stated syncability of this item  #   :type syncability_reason:  #    :class:‘ItemStatusReason‘  ITEM_SYNC_STATUS_CHANGED =  ‘ITEM_SYNC_STATUS_CHANGED’

2) Update its existing internal data structures to maintain the reason code.

3) Update the database (used in Iconizer communication) as further described below.

The IconManager can communicate to the Iconizer through the icons.db DB. A new column, ‘status_reason’ can be added to an IconInfo table:

Path updated Status Traits status_reason Path/to/item <version> ItemSyncState — ItemStatusReason

This can allow the Iconizer to provide additional functionality, beyond an icon, like hover text explaining why a particular item is labeled a Problem.

Mapping Info File

In addition to managing the ItemStatusReason, the user interface can need editorial information in order to convey useful information to the User. In some embodiments, the disclosed technology can utilize some information for each Unsyncable item:

1) User visible error code;

2) A one line description of issue;

3) A link to a support article.

This MappingInfo can be maintained in a static file, which can be stored with icons.db.

Additional Embodiments

Some embodiments include notifications that the IconManager currently receives. Some embodiments include unit tests that establish and verify expectations around the “reason” for an item being identified as Unsyncable.

Unit tests around the new icons.db can also be revised to exercise logic around the new Unsyncable_reason column.

In some embodiments, test units verify that a newly created Unsyncable item can result in the correct data existing in the IconManager, both in the notifications that it sent, and in the data it creates in the icons.db.

In some embodiments, changes to the static MappingInfo file can be part of an upgrade process for the system, rewriting the old file with updated information on either the client or remote device.

In some embodiments the IconManager is the maintainer of Problem & Ignorable Items. In some embodiments, synchronization clients can read from this file to enforce some security measures.

In some embodiments the user interface can fetch the data at once, or to page through the data, or to request data by Problem type, etc.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process performed by the synchronization depiction module 304. In step 502, the synchronization depiction module 304 determines whether the synchronization status of an item on the client device or on the cloud-based computing platform may be displayed. Generally, the status may be displayed unless the item is a temporary item, a hidden item, a system item, a link or an alias item. If this first determination result is positive, in step 504, the synchronization depiction module 304 next determines whether the status is syncable or not. If this second determination result is positive, in step 506, the synchronization depiction module 304 displays the syncable status of the item. If this second determination result is negative, in step 508, the synchronization depiction module 304 displays the unsyncable status as well as a reason code indicating why the item is not syncable. The reason can be that the item has an unsupported file type, has an unsupported name, is a web-only item, is too large, has exceeded a quota, results in a permission error, results in a network error, or results in an authentication error. When the first determination result is negative, in step 510, the synchronization depiction module 304 offers an API for accessing the item directly to obtain further information about the item.

FIG. 6 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the example form of a computer system within which a set of instructions, for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, may be executed.

In general, the routines executed to implement the embodiments of the disclosure, may be implemented as part of an operating system or a specific application, component, program, object, module or sequence of instructions referred to as “computer programs.” The computer programs typically comprise one or more instructions set at various times in various memory and storage devices in a computer, and that, when read and executed by one or more processing units or processors in a computer, cause the computer to perform operations to execute elements involving the various aspects of the disclosure.

Moreover, while embodiments have been described in the context of fully functioning computers and computer systems, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various embodiments are capable of being distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that the disclosure applies equally regardless of the particular type of machine or computer-readable media used to actually effect the distribution.

Further examples of machine-readable storage media, machine-readable media, or computer-readable (storage) media include, but are not limited to, recordable type media such as volatile and non-volatile memory devices, floppy and other removable disks, hard disk drives, optical disks (e.g., Compact Disk Read-Only Memory (CD ROMS), Digital Versatile Disks, (DVDs), etc.), among others, and transmission type media such as digital and analog communication links.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of “including, but not limited to.” As used herein, the terms “connected,” “coupled,” or any variant thereof, means any connection or coupling, either direct or indirect, between two or more elements; the coupling of connection between the elements can be physical, logical, or a combination thereof. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,” and words of similar import, when used in this application, shall refer to this application as a whole and not to any particular portions of this application. Where the context permits, words in the above Detailed Description using the singular or plural number may also include the plural or singular number respectively. The word “or,” in reference to a list of two or more items, covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list, and any combination of the items in the list.

The above detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the teachings to the precise form disclosed above. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the disclosure are described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the disclosure, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. For example, while processes or blocks are presented in a given order, alternative embodiments may perform routines having steps, or employ systems having blocks, in a different order, and some processes or blocks may be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/or modified to provide alternative or subcombinations. Each of these processes or blocks may be implemented in a variety of different ways. Also, while processes or blocks are at times shown as being performed in series, these processes or blocks may instead be performed in parallel, or may be performed at different times. Further, any specific numbers noted herein are only examples: alternative implementations may employ differing values or ranges.

The teachings of the disclosure provided herein can be applied to other systems, not necessarily the system described above. The elements and acts of the various embodiments described above can be combined to provide further embodiments.

Any patents and applications and other references noted, including any that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporated herein by reference. Aspects of the disclosure can be modified, if necessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the various references described above to provide yet further embodiments of the disclosure.

These and other changes can be made to the disclosure in light of the above Detailed Description. While the above description describes certain embodiments of the disclosure, and describes the best mode contemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, the teachings can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may vary considerably in its implementation details, while still being encompassed by the subject matter disclosed herein. As noted above, particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspects of the disclosure should not be taken to imply that the terminology is being redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics, features, or aspects of the disclosure with which that terminology is associated. In general, the terms used in the following claims should not be construed to limit the disclosure to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Description section explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope of the disclosure encompasses not only the disclosed embodiments, but also all equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the disclosure under the claims.

While certain aspects of the disclosure are presented below in certain claim forms, the inventors contemplate the various aspects of the disclosure in any number of claim forms. For example, while only one aspect of the disclosure is recited as a means-plus-function claim under 35 U.S.C. § 112, 16, other aspects may likewise be embodied as a means-plus-function claim, or in other forms, such as being embodied in a computer-readable medium. (Any claims intended to be treated under 35 U.S.C. § 112, 16 will begin with the words “means for”.) Accordingly, the applicant reserves the right to add additional claims after filing the application to pursue such additional claim forms for other aspects of the disclosure. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method performed by a client device which communicates with a cloud-based computing platform for synchronizing folders and files, the method comprising: receiving, by the client device, a first request from a user to delete a first item on the client device, wherein the first item is synchronized with a corresponding first item on a server of the cloud-based computing platform; receiving, by the client device, a second request from the user to delete a second item on the client device, wherein the second item is synchronized with a corresponding second item on the server of the cloud-based computing platform; detecting, by the client device, whether a top-level item associated with the first item and the second item exists on the client device such that deletion of the top-level item is representative of deletion of the first item and the second item; cumulatively aggregating, by the client device, the first request to delete the first item and the second request to delete the second item; identifying, by the client device, an item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the top-level item on the client device; unsynchronizing, by the client device, the top-level item on the client device with the item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the top-level item, wherein the unsynchronizing causes a break in an association between top-level item on the client device and the item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the top-level item and wherein the server of the cloud-based computing platform executes a delete of only the item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the top-level item; deleting, by the client device, only the top-level item on the client device; and resolving, by the client device, items that do not match between the folders and files on the client device and folders and files on cloud-based computing platform created by executing the delete of the top level item on the cloud-based computing platform.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the top-level item includes determining whether a parent of the first item is requested for deletion.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: in the event that the top level item is not the first item, verifying, by the client device, that the first item does not include other items.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the client device, a third request from the user to perform at least one of: move an item on the client device, add an item to the client device, or delete an item from the client device before deleting the top-level item on the client device, wherein the third request is processed before the first request to delete the first item and according a predetermined policy.
 5. The method of claim 1, where deleting the top-level item on the client device includes moving the top-level item to a trash can on the client device.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein resolving items that do not match between the folders and files on the client device and folders and files on cloud-based computing platform created by executing the delete of the top level item on the cloud-based computing platform comprises identifying the item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the top-level item includes determining whether the item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the top-level item is a copy of the top-level item.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein resolving items that do not match between the folders and files on the client device and folders and files on cloud-based computing platform created by executing the delete of the top level item on the cloud-based computing platform comprises: after unsynchronizing the top-level item on the client device with the item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the top-level item: identifying, by the client device, a third item on the cloud-computing platform, wherein the third item is included within the item on the cloud-based computing platform but the third item does not have a corresponding item on the client device; adding, in the client device, an item corresponding to the third item; receiving a request to delete the added item; and verifying, by the client device, that the added item as an item that is requested to be deleted includes other items.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein resolving items that do not match between the folders and files on the client device and folders and files on cloud-based computing platform created by executing the delete of the top level item on the cloud-based computing platform comprises: after unsynchronizing the top-level item on the client device with the item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the top-level item: identifying, by the client device, a third item on the client device under the top-level item but does not have a corresponding item on the cloud-computing platform; and deleting, by the client device, the third item from the client device.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying a list of one or more entries respectively for one or more items on the client device or the cloud-based computing platform, wherein each entry includes a status of syncability, and a reason code identifying a reason why an item in the one or more items is unsyncable, wherein an item on the client device is syncable when it has a corresponding item on the cloud-based computing platform, and an item on the cloud-based computing platform is syncable when it has a corresponding item on the client device, wherein an unsyncable status causes a break in an association between the item on the client device and the item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the item.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the reason code indicates at least one of: an unsupported file type, an unsupported item name, a web-only item, a permission error, a network error, or an authentication error.
 11. The method of claim 9, further comprising: allowing, via an application programming interface (API), access to an item on the client device or on the cloud-based computing platform for which no entry is included in the list.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the item for which no entry is included in the list is at least one of: a temporary item, a hidden item, a system item, or a link.
 13. The method of claim 9, further comprising: adding an entry to the list for an item having a status of unsyncable, in response to a failure to create or maintain a corresponding item.
 14. The method of claim 13, further comprising: after adding the entry to the list for the item, sending a request for handling unsyncability of the item.
 15. The method of claim 9, further comprising: sending a notification when an entry to the list is updated, added to the list, or removed from the list.
 16. The method of claim 9, wherein each entry further includes a link to an article.
 17. A client device comprising: a processor; and a memory coupled with and readable by the processor and storing therein a set of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to communicate with a cloud-based platform for synchronizing folders and files by: receiving a first request from a user to delete a first item on the client device, wherein the first item is synchronized with a corresponding first item on a server of the cloud-based computing platform; receiving a second request from the user to delete a second item on the client device, wherein the second item is synchronized with a corresponding second item on the server of the cloud-based computing platform; detecting whether a top-level item associated with the first item and the second item exists on the client device such that deletion of the top-level item is representative of deletion of the first item and the second item; cumulatively aggregating the first request to delete the first item and the second request to delete the second item; identifying an item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the top-level item on the client device; unsynchronizing the top-level item on the client device with the item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the top-level item, wherein the unsynchronizing causes a break in an association between top-level item on the client device and the item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the top-level item and wherein the server of the cloud-based computing platform executes a delete of only the item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the top-level item; deleting only the top-level item on the client device; and resolving items that do not match between the folders and files on the client device and folders and files on cloud-based computing platform created by executing the delete of the top level item on the cloud-based computing platform.
 18. The client device of claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: display a list of one or more entries respectively for one or more items on the client device or the cloud-based computing platform, wherein each entry includes a status of syncability, and a reason code identifying a reason why an item in the one or more items is unsyncable, wherein an item on the client device is syncable when it has a corresponding item on the cloud-based computing platform, and an item on the cloud-based computing platform is syncable when it has a corresponding item on the client device, wherein an unsyncable status causes a break in an association between the item on the client device and the item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the item.
 19. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium comprising a set of instructions stored therein which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to communicate with a cloud-based platform for synchronizing folders and files by: receiving a first request from a user to delete a first item on the client device, wherein the first item is synchronized with a corresponding first item on a server of the cloud-based computing platform; receiving a second request from the user to delete a second item on the client device, wherein the second item is synchronized with a corresponding second item on the server of the cloud-based computing platform; detecting whether a top-level item associated with the first item and the second item exists on the client device such that deletion of the top-level item is representative of deletion of the first item and the second item; cumulatively aggregating the first request to delete the first item and the second request to delete the second item; identifying an item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the top-level item on the client device; unsynchronizing the top-level item on the client device with the item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the top-level item, wherein the unsynchronizing causes a break in an association between top-level item on the client device and the item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the top-level item and wherein the server of the cloud-based computing platform executes a delete of only the item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the top-level item; deleting only the top-level item on the client device; and resolving items that do not match between the folders and files on the client device and folders and files on cloud-based computing platform created by executing the delete of the top level item on the cloud-based computing platform.
 20. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: display a list of one or more entries respectively for one or more items on the client device or the cloud-based computing platform, wherein each entry includes a status of syncability, and a reason code identifying a reason why an item in the one or more items is unsyncable, wherein an item on the client device is syncable when it has a corresponding item on the cloud-based computing platform, and an item on the cloud-based computing platform is syncable when it has a corresponding item on the client device, wherein an unsyncable status causes a break in an association between the item on the client device and the item on the cloud-based computing platform corresponding to the item. 